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Masters of Spin

By

Robert Messenger

Updated July 21, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

The Tour De France ends Sunday, but Lance Armstrong won't be wearing the winner's yellow jersey. He retired last July after seven straight Tour victories. Armstrong's return from cancer in the mid-1990s to win the Tour made the race compelling to Americans, and for the first two weeks of this year's race it looked as if a compatriot, Floyd Landis, was going to succeed him. Landis cracked, though, on the hard climb to La Toussuire in the Alps, losing 10 minutes and, it seemed, his chance at victory. But he made an epic solo attack on Thursday that put him back on the leader board. At this point, the only thing safe to...